Jesse Jackson has offered to go to China to help negociate the release the American hostages (I guess they are now considered hostages). He has a pretty good track record of getting hostages released. Think he can pull it off again?

The man is a charlatan of the worst kind. He would go simply to embarrass the Bush Administration, and the Chinese probably know this. Jackson should still be in family counseling for what he put his wife through.

Maggs swings, it's a drive deep to left! The Tigers are going to the World Series!!!

This morning, NBC spoke with the mother of one of the hostages. She was asked her opinion about Jesse going. She said she would support it only if he had Bush's approval, and if he would NOT offer an apology to the Chinese. She does not feel like the US owes China an apology, and that Jesse should honor that. Jesse feels we should apologize. If my child were over there, I would welcome any ones help! It's easy for us to critize Jesse's intentions, but we have to ask ourselves how we'd feel if we had a loved one trapped over there. Anyway, this should be interesting.

hehe,
I didnt hear about that yet.
Its USA and CHINA on the line..
They're poweful and they are indeed,
But This should how go on for too long.
The transit strike in Calgary lasted 46 days now.
NO BUS OR TRAIN!!!!!

NooooooO!.. Cease trips to airport.
I think this should be only a matter of day for china to finish up some issues.
Im sure thigns will turn out well.
Too bad the pilot who bumped is gone.

Jessie Jackson has been very succesful negotiating the release of hostages in the past. I thing he should do it. I think the mother of the hostage that was on TV this morning had a gun to her head to say that. To hell with what Bush wants anyway!
He couldn't find China on a map.
The media would rather focus on Jackson's weakness in his personal life.

And to comment on Jesse making the US look like villians, we ALWAYS look like the villians to the rest of the world, no matter what we do. This is nothing new, and it certainly didn't start with Jesse! He is not the sole cause of that! At least the man did offer to help, although it's no longer needed being that the crew is coming home from what I heard this morning (thank God). And Jesse certainly isn't the only "opportunist loudmouth" out there. There's plenty of them!

real shame about Jesse. He's a very smart man and at times had intelligent or insightful points to make. Also a rather gifted communicator. He also had the high ground from the get-go-- from his days at Martin Luther King Jr's side. Unfortunately, in the end, he has squandered that advantage; no doubt rationalizing dubious political tradeoffs and personal interests. Too often he has been a particularly self serving opportunist. Is he the only one? No. But, it doesn't make him any more an innocent victim to suffer the slings and arrows of a fickle media now. Welcome to the crowd. The media is having a feeding frenzy on the man now, but in some respects gave him a free pass on his corporate shakedowns in the past. There is little question his talent in winning release of hostages is helped by the obvious fact it will- for better or worse- embarrass the US govt. Not much more to it than that. Still, its never too late for a man of his talent and intellect to make positive contributions to America (by his own lights of course) even despite the
scandal(s)...but his time as America's unofficial defacto "black leader" is most likely over. there'll most likely be a changing of the guard. Jesse's been an "activist" forever. everyones got a "term limit" of some kind. There's alot of things Jesse could still do- from public office/service to print or TV journalism (where he wasn't half bad as far as these things go). He oughtta move on and go for it.

Well, i guess I shouldn't have expected an intellectual conversation here. (Sigh.)

Fact is, he brings people home. Now, the situations that he has worked with before were cases where our guys were being harmed by their captors. When our men and women are being harmed, who gives flying flip about apologies? If you can't see that, then you are one selfish bastard for sure.

However, this isn't the case right now. The hostages were not being mistreated. And besides that, Bush must have known that the hostages were about to be freed. Changing the game when it is making progress is not ever the way to go. In the case of the Kosovo hostages, Milosevic was quite clear that he would not do business with Clinton's crew.

If China was being similarly ornery, then I would wholly support Jackson going, even though I don't care for the guy too much on other issues.

Send me a PM at http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/sendmessage.main?from_username=NULL

I do think it would be to the best interest of the United States if Rev. Jackson went to China. But ONLY after the servicemen are returned and the crisis is over. Maybe his mistress saved up enough of the taxpayers' money to go with him.

Cfalk says:
"The first black U.S. president will be a conservative."

Cfalk, you are absolutely correct. Not only that, the first female president will be a Moderate-to-Conservative Republican.

Why to all "true" blacks have to espouse to a large welfare state, punitive taxation for successful people, and liberal positions on morality (Gay rights, abortion, etc.) Are they not as free as anyone else to decide on their own what is right and wrong, the same as everyone else?

The first black (and as JetService said, woman) president will be a conservative simply because the voting population is mainly moderate, neither extreme is particularly welcome. A democratic black or woman will have the impression of being further left than other democrats due to to their percieved "disadvantages" of being black/female which liberals like to label them as having. To ensure a more middle-of-the-road presidency, voters will vote for a black or woman who's conservative political/economic convictions counter their perhaps "natural" liberal inclinations.

Barbara Jordan? I remember her. Had she been elected president, the U.S.A. would count itself among 3rd world countries today.